Chapter 623

Five days later, we began the war.

======[Barrier]======

“Uoooooh!”

“Come up if you dare, you savage dogs!”

“Gyaaah! My eyes! My eyes!”

“Kyaaaah!”

Screams, roars, curses, and the clashing of metal intertwined chaotically, burning like flames. Blood, heat, hatred, joy, pain, and excitement filled the crucible of war, melting and mixing into one, flowing down.

It was a horrifying and brutal scene.

“Don’t stop shooting! Even if you don’t hit, pour all your arrows to stop them!”

Thousands of arrows rained down like a black storm, covering the sky. The ballistae on the barrier roared, firing massive arrows like spears.

“No matter what, we must protect the barrier! Even if you die, die on the wall! Don’t let the demons of the grasslands invade the Empire!”

Soldiers leaned over the barrier, throwing boiling water, rocks, and giant logs. Arrows from mounted archers pierced their foreheads, dragging the unlucky soldiers down the wall.

– Kwadududuk!

A massive blade with chains swept across the wall like a pendulum. Ka`har warriors, sliced in two without even a scream, fell like autumn leaves.

Even the warriors who dodged the blade were struck down by the knights’ throwing spears, falling with their final cries.

“Kieeeet!”

The warriors who climbed the wall despite all threats swung their swords with fierce roars. Imperial soldiers’ heads rolled like harvested barley, spraying fountains of blood. Knights who arrived late blocked the warriors’ blades, continuing the relentless slaughter.

– Hoooooong!

“Catapults! Take cover! Take cover!”

Before the warning could finish, massive boulders flew toward the barrier. Human-sized projectiles arced through the air, smashing into the defense towers. With a thunderous roar, the towers shattered, raining down bricks, wood, and human fragments like hail.

“No, noooooo!”

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Soldiers caught in the collapse were flung from the barrier, falling to the ground. Desperate screams. Bodies bursting into pieces.

The hastily dug moat was already filled with corpses, forming a hill of flesh. Brains and organs floated on the river of blood, emitting a foul stench.

It was a brutal and tragic battle, as if hell itself had been transplanted. Human life held no more weight than a sheet of paper.

This wasn’t just happening here; the entire barrier was in the same situation.

—

The fear of the Ka`har lay in the fact that all tens of thousands of their soldiers were cavalry. Even the White Armies, trained as infantry, could surpass the Imperial cavalry once mounted.

Their mobility was unmatched by Imperial cavalry. Their horsemanship allowed them to perform acrobatics on horseback, and their mounted archery enabled accurate shots even while retreating.

In an open field battle, the difference in cavalry strength would lead to inevitable defeat.

In other words, their strength was halved in battlefields where cavalry couldn’t be utilized.

If they couldn’t fight on horseback, they were just a group of aggressive fighters, not an unstoppable calamity.

Thus, Ludwig, preparing for defensive warfare, believed that the Ka`har’s reliance on cavalry would be their weakness.

Even if tens of thousands of cavalry charged, they couldn’t climb the walls on horseback. They’d have to dismount to cross the barrier.

And once dismounted, they were just mediocre infantry. A group of savages with little experience in siege or infantry combat.

The Imperial forces defending the barrier were also mediocre, but with both sides at similar strength, the defenders had the advantage.

It was common knowledge that breaching even an earthen fort required three times the number of troops. What chance did they have against a barrier of solid rock, tens of meters high?

“Even with forty-seven thousand spears, you couldn’t break this barrier. You know that too, don’t you, Or-han?”

Thus, Ludwig wasn’t overly concerned about being overwhelmed in a direct battle. What worried him were the likes of Or-han and the paladins, whose strength defied common sense, not the numbers of those who would die honestly to arrows and swords.

But Or-han thought differently.

Unlike Ludwig, who believed the Ka`har’s cavalry strength would be a weakness in siege warfare, Or-han saw it as their greatest strength.

Not just in open field battles, but in sieges as well.

“Even if I concentrate all my forces, I couldn’t break that wall. I’ll admit that.”

Or-han also knew that a frontal assault on the barrier was impossible. Even with tens of thousands of troops, the Empire could match them with their own forces. The Ka`har warriors, lacking experience in siege and infantry combat, couldn’t breach a similar number of defenders.

“But why should I fight your way?”

In the command tent, Or-han smiled like a hungry beast, looking at the map marked with dozens of points along the long line symbolizing the barrier.

“Concentrating forces for a breakthrough is the Western way, not ours. Now, face the Eastern way of siege warfare.”

The basic Eastern tactic was to use superior mobility to scatter the enemy and destroy them piece by piece. The tactics for open field battles were reborn in Or-han’s mind as siege tactics.

—

“The White Armies will hold here and attack the center of the barrier. There’s no need to force a breach; just keep their main forces tied down here.”

“Yes!”

Nine years ago, after bypassing the barrier and invading the Empire, only to be surrounded and forced to retreat, Or-han concluded that attacking the Empire without breaching the barrier was impossible.

The problem was, even with all his forces, breaching the barrier was impossible.

Even if he concentrated tens of thousands of troops, the Empire could match them with their own forces. The Ka`har warriors, lacking experience in siege and infantry combat, couldn’t breach a similar number of defenders.

“The Black, Yellow, and Green Armies will move in units of a thousand. Sixteen thousand-man units, each led by a paladin. The 1st Black Army, Glar, you’ll lead as always.”

“I obey, Kagan.”

Training the warriors in siege and infantry combat would take too much time, and there were no suitable opponents.

His main enemies, the tribes of the grasslands, didn’t build walls. If they tried unfamiliar infantry tactics against cavalry, they’d be crushed.

“Targien, Hatan. You’ll lead the Enemy Army and attack Dane. You started this fight; you’ll finish it.”

“Leave it to us, Father!”

Thus, Or-han spent years pondering how to breach the barrier with his current forces. Eleven years ago, after the Imperial Army crossed the barrier to attack Ai-shan, he never forgot his grudge against the Empire.

Though it was more of a vengeful grudge.

“What you sixteen thousand-man units must do is simple. Fight scattered, retreat when the enemy approaches, and gather to attack when you see an opening. Don’t focus on killing Imperial soldiers; focus on exhausting them. Understand?”

“Like hunting a pack of beasts?”

“Exactly.”

Or-han nodded with a satisfied smile at Glar’s question.

“The barrier is unbelievably high and sturdy… but it’s too long. Can you really defend the entire barrier with just tens of thousands of troops, Ludwig?”

A scattered siege using superior mobility. That was Or-han’s strategy. Dividing his forces into thousand-man units to attack various points of the barrier simultaneously would force the enemy to divide their forces as well.

Changing the war from tens of thousands versus tens of thousands to dozens of battles of a thousand versus a thousand.

“My soldiers can move five times faster and ten times farther than Imperial soldiers. They’re all cavalry.”

You can’t climb walls on horseback, so cavalry can’t conduct sieges? Or-han didn’t think so.

“Try to stop us with your slow infantry, Ludwig. By the time your forces arrive, ours will already be attacking elsewhere.”

The difference in speed always overturns the difference in strength.